Customer Reviews

Horton Hatches the Egg (Dr Seuss Yellow Back Book)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Some see this as the triumph of hard work, patience, and loyalty. I guess I can see that. Certainly, lazy Mayzie is as villianous a deadbeat parent as I can think of, and Horton strikes a noble contrast.

However, I couldn't help reading this as Dr. Seuss' take on nature vs. nurture. Horton does all the real nurturing, and out comes an elephant-bird, a Lamarkian triumph and an inspiration to adoptive parents. I'm not sure if it's what Dr. Seuss believes to be true or if it is what he wishes to be true, "it should be, it should be, it should be that way."
I could do without the scene where the hunters point their rifles straight at Horton's heart, but that's just me. Evidently I'm too gentle for the world of children's literature.

Big thumbs up, though, good story, good rhymes, and not as insipid as the lazy-Mayzie "wocket in my pocket"-era Seuss. Most importantly, my daughter loves it.

This book clearly deserves more than five stars!

Horton Hatches the Egg is one of my very favorite children's books. The story opens with Mayzie, a lazy bird, sitting on her nest hatching an egg. She's terribly bored and tired and wants a break. She persuades Horton, the elephant, to take over for her. This is a good choice on her part because, "An elephant's faithful -- one hundred percent!"

So Horton props up the tree so it can take his weight, climbs up onto the nest, and ever so gently . . . sits on the egg.

Mayzie decides a little vacation in Palm Beach will be in order. Once there, she says . . . "why bother?" and abandons her egg.

What Horton didn't know is that this egg needed 51 more weeks of hatching! But, never mind. "He said what he meant and he meant what he said." He sat on that egg, no matter what.

Through a long series of misadventures, Mayzie and Horton are reunited just as the egg hatches. Mayzie wants her egg back, and Horton doesn't agree. Then the big surprise happens and Horton gets his reward!

Teaching children patience and persistence . . . well, that takes a lot of patience and persistence. Horton Hatches the Egg is a way to provide a small fictional example when setbacks and delays occur. My youngsters didn't understand Thomas Edison's comment about genius being 99 percent perspiration until they were well past their Dr. Seuss days. I like to think that their hard-working adult selves (for the three who are adults) were formed in part by Horton's example in this book.

This book contains many valuable lessons to encourage such as: keeping your word; being honest; looking out for those in need; sticking through to the end; facing your fears; and many others. It's a remarkable thing to realize also how well the ridiculous image of an unhappy elephant sitting on a nest is a bare tree can create all of those good notions. Way to go, Dr. Seuss!

Horton Hatches the Egg is a wonderful tale for young and old alike. I read it as a child and now read it to my own children. I was the library coordinator for my child's first grade class and was having a very difficult time controling twenty two unruly kids. Horton to the rescue. The kids loved the tale of the faithful elephant shouting out each and every time that this elephant was faithful one hundred percent. You will love this book one hundred percent !

This playful and imaginative book is about an elephant that comes across a bird that is extremely stressed and does not wish to sit on her egg anymore. So Horton decides to sit on the egg so the bird can take a break. Well the bird ends up taking a tropical vacation and doesn't want to return. Well Horton very patiently sat on the egg through sleet and rain and the most horrible conditions. Well some people decide that this is a hilarious site and feel that he should be on display for all to see. So the men dig up the tree in which Horton is patiently perched and is taken down south. When Horton and the tree reach the south the mother bird finds Horton just as his egg starts to hatch and she demands it back. Horton is very displeased and states that he did all the work and deserves the egg. Well just as that was said out of the egg jumps an Elephant bird, which is a trophy for all Horton's hard work.
Dr. Seuss yet again did a wonderful job with rhymes and engaging children to read. I love the moral that was being put into place that if you work hard and stay focused then it will all pay off and you will be rewarded in the end.
This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss book if not my favorite. I have always been a fan of his ability to draw children in and engage them in reading. Also the rhymes and silly words are great for young readers. Also what better then to have a moral tied along with it?

Horton Hatches the egg was one of my favourite books when I was a child and it is lovely to be able to read it to my children and it has become one of their favourite too. I certainly prefer this one to many of the Seuss books available (I have never been a huge fan of Cat in the hat or Green Eggs and Ham) This one has a hugely appealing story.

Mayzie is a lazy bird and doesn't enjoy just sitting on her egg, she needs a holiday from sitting around doing nothing on the egg (a lovely ironic touch for adults here, I think this is one of the reasons it is so appealing!) So she convinces Horton the Elephant who is passing by to sit on her egg for her. She doesn't really care that he is 'immense' she persuades him that he will be able to do it.

So Horton props up the nest and sits on it - all through the day and night, through storms, through winter ice, through teasing from his friends because "an elephants faithful, 100%"

Then one day some hunters come along, but instead of shooting hiim they capture him on the nest and drag him over the hills and onto a boat (where an elephant is seasick, 100%) and back to New York to sell him to the circus.

There he sits on the egg being dragged around the country until one day they go to florida where Mayzie the lazy bird has been lying around. She has been there a year and has decided never to go back to her nest. When she sees the circus in town she flies in and sees Horton on her egg, just as it hatches. Now Mayzie gets angry and claims that it is HER egg.

But the egg hatches with a new type of creature, an elephant bird. It is purely Horton's creation and the circus and the people send him back home where no doubt he will live a long and happy life with his little bird/baby

It is a nice book with a great message of working hard for reward despite the slings and arrows around you. It has a wonderful rhyme and good catch phrases which kids can learn easily to help with early readers

the illustrations are simply coloured in black green and red but enormously effective - Dr Seuss was an extraordinary illustrator!

Overall one of our favourite - and highly recommended

As I kid I loved this book because I thought Horton was a pure wonder. I always loved the line "an elephant faithful 100%". And my little innocent heart took it all very seriously and I wanted to be just like Horton... faithful 100%. As an adult this book has taken on a very new stronger meaning that I did not see as a child... And I am very happy to be passing along the message to my children.

Reading this story to a child that you love is one of life's great joys. Horton is a character that I cherish. As a teacher, I read this story to every one of my classes. As a mom, I read it nightly to my children. As always, Dr. Seuss' rhymes are enchanting, clever and fun. Within these delightful pages are lessons about character, commitment, decency, responsibility, justice, and the nature and value of true love. That's quite a bit of bang for your buck, I'd say!

Even with all of the tremendous new books made available to children year after year, there is a reason why publishers have been reprinting this since 1940. -- You'd be hard pressed to find a better book of this type. -- The truth is, we all deserve to know someone like Horton. And even after all this time, it is reassuring to know that 'an elephant is faithful, one hundred per cent'.

I bought a Horton stuffed animal for my grandson at Christmas time, so I thought it would be natural to include "Horton Hatches An Egg" and "Horton Hears a Who"with the doll for the whole family to share and enjoy. Both of these books are classics for very good reasons. First, they are well written and engaging, but more importantly, they each teach an important life lesson. I use other Seuss works to teach values: "Sneetches" for brotherhood, "The Lorax" for the environment. "Green Pants"helps illustrate our commonalities, "The Butter Battle Book" graphically exposes the absurdities of war. Every child should access to all of these, with a caring adult's support and discussion.

If I am reading the reviews right, a great deal of people on Amazon who buy children's literature were either never children themselves, or they grew up in a land made out of pillows.

I don't believe the central theme of this book was ever adoption--it has always been a story about commitment and keeping your promises, really--but on the other hand, neither do I believe that it will scar for life the tortured soul of any adopted child unlucky enough to stumble across it in a dentist's office.

My family adopted three children growing up. We had most of Dr. Seuss' books in the house, including both of the Horton stories, and all of us, including my two sisters and younger brother, have grown up as well-adjusted and happy members of society. In fact, Horton helped in that. Not once were the Seuss stories ever perceived as a threat; they provided great comfort in endless afternoons.

As for the worries expressed over "violence" in this story because of the hunters, let me say this--if you weren't affected by it enough to even remember the event, or remember that it was in the book at all when you buy it today, why skip it when reading it to your kids? I should think that the fact that as a child you were so unfazed by the hunters that you didn't remember their guns at all would be proof that there is no need to skip them.

Besides, I have three boys and I've been reading them this story since they were three years old. They love the story and they also love danger and suspense, and the brief peril of Horton just pulls them into the story all the more, rooting for the proud and brave elephant, and clinging to my arm. Kids understand and can handle a lot more than adults who want to coddle them think they can.

Horton Hatches the Egg--still stirring up trouble after all these years. May he ever do so!

You've gotta love the Horton man. Dr. Seuss's popular elephant starred in not one but two of Theodore Geisel's great picture books for the kiddies. Now with the 100th Anniversary of Dr. Suess's birth nigh upon us, it's a good idea to take a look at some of his most successful books to appreciate them fully once again.

Mayzie bird is a lazy bird, and would much rather be flying off to somewhere fun rather than tend to her egg. But when friendly (and gullible) Horton passes by her, Mayzie sees her chance to grab a little R & R in sunny Palm Beach. She convinces Horton to sit on her egg, a ploy that works despite Horton's concerns. Once gone, however, Mayzie decides "never" to go back to her nest again. Horton, stuck with the egg on his own, does everything he can to ensure it's safety. Through blizzard, teasing, capture, and seasickness Horton is faithful to his promise, "One hundred percent". When the egg finally hatches (and Mayzie insists on claiming it once the work has been finished) the result is a surprise and delight to the patient elephant.

There's a lot to love in this old story. The Seussian rhyming schemes (often parodied but rarely equaled) have the perfect amount of syllables per line. Every page scans easily, and you cannot help but hear the words spoken in your brain as you read them. I remember growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a child and delighting at the reading of the places Horton travels (ala circus) that mentioned my own rhymable home town. Such lines are coupled with the fabulous illustrations that show every minute of Horton's misery in wrenching detail (though not so much that you ever think the elephant is under too serious duress). Thus the payoff at the end is even better than you could hope for. It's amazing how memorable I find these illustrations, even now some twenty years later. There's something about Dr. Seuss that just connects with children on the deepest level imaginable. And there's something about "Horton Hears the Who" that deserves that connection.